claims that the benghazi attacks were planned with al qaeda influence. >> what happened in benghazi was, in fact, initially a spon tapeses you reaction to what transpired hours before in cairo. >> and on another front israel's prime minister warns the white house time is running out to deal with iran. >> six months away from being about 90% of having the enriched uranium for an atom bomb. i think you have toplati place red line before them now before it's too late. >> 50 days to go until election day and team romney is airing its dirty laundry. what does the campaign say about politico's exclusive reporting. the candidate is in los angeles today to address the hispanic chamber of commerce and sit down with telemundo while president obama arrived in cincinnati, his 12th visit to ohio. his home away interest home. and live from new york, "snl" inaugurates a new

president obama. ♪ i so in love with you >> that was fun, right? so, do you want that or this. ♪ eieio good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. with 50 days to go team obama is monitoring an explosive situation across the arab world, while the romney campaign is coping with questions about its internal management today. and whether a team that the candidate is loyal to, can now help him unseat an incumbent president. joining me for our daily fix, chris alyssa, msnbc contributor and mark halperin, senior political analyst for "time" and msnbc. welcome both. chris, 50 days to go, we've got a very close race despite, you know, some advantage for

president obama in battleground states. is this the time for the romney team to be doing sort of a postmortem almost as if they've already lost this race? >> i'll give you an uncharacteristically for me short answer, no. you don't want to be talking about process and that's what this is. who likes who, the rewriting of the convention speech, the whole story in politico, great story, that whole story was what the romney team had avoided to their credit for most of this campaign. they really had worked to say we are a cohesive unit and we're not going to get into the second guessing and air our dirty laundry publicly. some aired and in september, not late october, it distracts means we're talking about this story today not talking about as much about mitt romney trying to refocus on the economy, we're not talking about as much about the middle east, all of those things are why campaigns don't like these stories and try to

avoid them and it's a big key to barack obama's success. you very rarely, certainly in '08 and in this campaign, about who disagrees with whom when it comes to strategic matters. >> frustrating for reporters not to get more leaks. the one person who has gotten them with john heilemann is the game change team. what do we expect from team romney? is there going to be a rebooting? >> i doubt it. what matters in the terms of who's going to win the election is can governor romney rise above it? he's got a big event today, big interview today. some new campaign ads. he has yet to have a series of events where people say, wow, he's hitting his stride, really explaining to the country how the next four years would be different with mitt romney than barack obama. if he does that, the politico story as well reported as it was won't matter in terms of his chances of winning. doesn't do that i suspect he'll see more stories like this as people try to explain why it is that they've squandered what a

lot of republicans see as a very good opportunity to take back the white house? >> and the romney campaign has been critical of president obama for not being tough enough on trade issues with china. here is what the president had to say in a state with auto suppliers, where he took action against china on a trade issue involving the auto industry today. >> he's been running around ohio claiming he's going to roll up his sleeves and take the fight to china. now, here's the thing, his experience has been owning companies that were called pioneers in the business of outsourcing jobs to countries like china. >> how effective is that, chris? >> well, look, i think what the president wants to do here is muddy the waters a little bit and i think relatively effective there. again, that's the bain attack

essentially saying mitt romney says one thing as a candidate, did something different as a private business man. i will say i was on a call with lots of other reporters with ed gillespie, one of the top ranking republicans in the romney campaign a little bit earlier, they, ed insisted kind of with a wink and nod he thought that this action on the -- behalf of the obama administration to china came in response to ads that mitt romney is running calling out president obama over china. so that, in fact, this is reactive. i would say regardless of why the president is doing what he's doing he's doing it in the state of ohio that we know is of absolutely critical importance to mitt romney and a state that we know as of today mitt romney is behind. >> mark halperin, little doubt that it is reactive, but it is one of privileges or powers of incumbency. >> it is. you know, one of the advantages the president an his team have, they've been sitting around for three and a half years, waiting for an opponent, knowing what their vulnerabilities and having

gamd out the research, video, response ads when mitt romney put up an ad on china a few days ago the next day the obama campaign had a response ad on china up. they think they can diffuse the issue with this like this, keep it to enough of a draw, even in governor romney has a bit of an advantage it's not dispositive in determining the outcome of the election. i've heard governor romney talk about china quite a bit since he started his campaign and yet to hear him talk about it in a way that seems like it will break through with a lot of voters to say yeah, if mitt romney is president, things with china will be more to our liking than they've been for the last four years. unless he can do that i think the back and forth plays to the president's at least again, roughly -- rough parody, particularly because as you say he has the benefits of incumbency. >> and in fact, the way he speaks about china is criticized by jon huntsman overtly and quietly by other leading republican foreign policy former officials who think that mitt

romney is all wrong about china. so he's not getting through to the voters and not getting through to the so-called republican elites as well. thanks very much, mark and chris. see you guys later. now to developments overseas. from the devastating attacks on u.s. forces in afghanistan, and the ongoing investigation. >> that deadly attack at the u.s. consulate in libya, we've got both covered for you with two live reports from the regions. we begin first with nbc's atia abawi joining me live from kabul. atia, we've had insighter attacks, we have -- insider attacks, u.s. forces, nato attacks against civilians, but most notably perhaps we've had that attack, the taliban claiming responsibility for the attack on a key u.s. base, u.s. joint nato base on friday. >> that's right, andrea. it's ban violent weekend here in afghanistan and it started friday night in the overnight hours when the taliban breached

the perimeter of that nato base you're talking about. one of the largest nato bases the afghanistan i should say. when i've been there, i thought it would be possible to breach but -- impossible to breach, but 15 made their way in, killed two u.s. marines in their attack and destroyed u.s. marine harrier jets on the runway there, causing millions, hundreds of millions of dollars of damage and then this weekend we saw more of these insider attacks we've been talking about all year. two british soldiers were killed and four americans were -- soldiers were killed by afghan police officers, people they thought they could trust, they were helping who turned their weapons on them. the taliban obviously claiming responsibility for all of these attacks and then today, we saw the first violent protest, protesting against this anti-islamic movie that has caused outrage throughout the muslim world. the last few days they've ended peacefully but today just outside of the city limits, hundreds of protesters demanded that death to america, they were

chanting that, they were hurling rocks. they set police cars ablaze. they wanted to make it to the u.s. embassy but the police did stop them and the afghan police we should mention, at least 45 afghan police officers sustained minor injuries, stopping these afghans from making it into the city limits and trying to make their way to the u.s. embassy here. andrea? >> what about the suicide bomber against the children who were part of a skateboarding group? chis tragedy last week? >> that is an absolute tragedy. it's little children we see all the time standing outside of i sap headquarters. the u.s. military sees them outside near the bases, they sell head scarves, sold little trinkets and this teenage suicider made their way into this protected area and apparently they were fighting saying you're on our territory get out, felt agitated, detonated his weapons, wanted to

target americans. instead he killed six children that are part of this group as you mentioned, where they were trying to better their lives but unfortunately their lives ended very -- at a very young age. andrea. >> atia abuoy in kabul. >> the attacks in benghazi, amman moya dean. we've seen what susan rice said to david gregory on "meet the press" saying this was spontaneous and what the libyan officials said to you, this was a planned attack with al qaeda influence? >> that's correct. libyan officials are not holding back the idea that two things happened here. one a group of foreign elements entered libya over the last several months as a result of the security vacuum that exists in this country and once they set up shop here they put in motion a plan to carry out an

attack. they cited to us over the course of the last several months growing attacks on diplomatic missions including the british ambassador or diplomat here and other foreigners. for them that was an indication something brewing, troubling taking place in post-revolutionary libya. the time and the specifics of when an attack might have been put in motion to be carried out against the u.s. facility is the central question as to whether or not this was in the eyes of u.s. officials a preplanned attack or as a result of a spontaneous outburst of anger. we've heard u.s. officials say they had no actionable intelligence. the central question between the libyan and u.s. officials as we understand it, whether or not there was a very clear planted target on september 11th. the u.s. consulate. or whether or not the people on the ground, the fighters or attackers on the ground exploited a moment of public outrage against the u.s. and approached the u.s. consulate to carry out in the window and security vacuum.

a short while ago the deputy minister of interior for the eastern part of libya was fired by the minister of interior. a lot had to do with the controversy surrounding the embassy and why the officials were not able to keep the protesters and would-be attackers at bay from the u.s. consulate. this is the recent development that happened within the last few minutes. >> and amman, let's talk about u.s. security because there's a lot -- a senate committee is asking for an investigation by the ig into why the state department did not have marines there. no marines in tripoli either. they don't talk about security publicly but they have to make decisions about where to put their resources. why wasn't there better security as far as you know from the u.s. side? >> well, that's a very important question. we've been to the u.s. consulate in benghazi and by most assessments did not seem like a tightly guarded compound. i've been to other u.s. diplomatic facilities around the world that are much more tightly

guarded. this was a private residence that had the normal walls but we spoke to one of the libyan security guards who was a private security contractor hired to protect the u.s. facility there. one of the individuals. we spoke to him at the hospital and told us the security on the outside of the perimeter involved only about nine libyan and handful of americans on the inside, many lightly armed, that in the wake of some large demonstration or protest it would have been nearly impossible for them to secure against. a lot of questions as to whether or not the security at that facility was adequate. the ambassador traveled with light security detail as well. >> amman my ha dean, thank you very much. thanks to atia au bau which in kabul as well. who is to blame for the unraveling of the arab spring and the threats and deaths over troops in afghanistan. former defense secretary william cohen joins us next. plus the knives are out inside the romney campaign. the politico briefing with jim vandehei. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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anti-american protests have spread to more than 20 countries throughout the middle east and north africa and indonesia and australia, supposedly sparked by the anti-muslim film or the trailer. today the protests spread to afghanistan where u.s. troops have already been suffering from insider attacks. what can or should the administration do? william cohen is former defense secretary during the clinton administration and is now chairman of the cohen group. bill, thanks for joining us. is this in part at least the administration's fault? >> well, in assessing fault you have to look at what is taking place on the ground in afghanistan. up until recently the reports

out of the international security force were positive in the sense that the security environment had improved. obviously that has deteriorated most recently with the so-called blue on green attacks which mean not enough has been done to properly vet the people. when we slow that down our exit in 2014 is going to place in some jeopardy the gains made. a lot of blame here in terms of has the afghan government done enough to help out? because we are leaving in 2014 and we're handing it over to them and unless they're prepared and properly trained, then those gains are going to be erased. i think there's a lot going on. there is a history going back with afghanistan. a long-term commitment. are we there for the long term? i think the answer is probably not. we and the rest of the international community has decided that 2014 is a good time to be leaving. >> the chairman of the joint

chiefs in a communication to the armed forces press service said we're all seized with the insider attack problem. you can't whitewash it. >> you can't. >> he said, you know, he went on to say we can't convince ourselves we just have to work harder to get through it smp. something has to change. >> what he means the afghan government has to change. the afghan government has to get serious about the people we're being asked to train and the event that doesn't take place, he has to be on notice, president karzai has to be on notice, 2014 is looming and he's got to have people who are properly vetted and trained when we hand over the responsibilities for them to defend and secure their own country. so that's what the -- i think chairman dempsey is saying to get real on that. we tend to underestimate the taliban. we think of them as being yahoo!s who are uneducated and can't do anything. they can read google maps as well as we can. they are pretty sophisticated

when it comes to targeting our assets and blowing up our aircraft. so we have to get tougher in terms of our security, but we need the help of the afghan government and unless we have that, then i think the security of the country is going to be placed in doubt come 2014. >> and let's talk about the arab spring. quote/unquote. the romney campaign, after what was widely criticized as a false start for disparaging the embassy in cairo in anticipation of the protests, the statement that they put out, and for speaking while we did the not even know what the fate of the american ambassador was, but is there a legitimate republican criticism of this administration for not being proactive enough with egypt and with tunisia and the other countries and was there anything that they should have, could have done to prevent the kind of unraveling we're seeing now? >> i think we have to understand when you're talking about a country the size of egypt, just

gone through an election, new president that is trying to form a government that has stability and institutions, the the motion we can just pour u.s. military in that country to secure it is false. what we have to do is send the message very clearly to president that we expect you to provide adequate security. we expect you to take a very aggressive role in tamping down this kind of inflammatory reaction to what that video which was despicable by the way, but we need you as the head of the government to send the signal that the united states is your ally or your friend you need us, you want our financial assistance, we need your requirement here to come to our assistance and provide the kind of security we need. we need your cooperation and we need your help but we can't simply on the one hand take our resources and then sit back and allow the inflamed public to

overrun our embassies or to put our people in jeopardy. i think it comes back, we have to take care of what we say in this country, putting our troops in greater jeopardy than they already are in the front lines. we treasure free speech but we have to take care also we don't do anything so provocative that's going to put the lives of our young men and women, our diplomats and our military in greater jeopardy than they are, being out on the front lines. >> do we need more marines in places like benghazi? we had none there. >> we may. this depends on the lib yn government. how many marines we send in, is this something that would then provoke another kind of reaction? we need the support of the libyan government, apparently they're prepared to do more. we need to do more in terms of the temporary situation to make sure that those elements inside of libya, these are not the people who were demonstrating for democracy and overthrowing gadhafi. these are the people who were the loose one, the al qaeda type

elements that are seeking to overthrow what has been achieved. so yes, we can put more marines on temporary basis but the libyan government has to say we need -- and declare we're going to do more to protect the american people. if we can't protect our diplomats and service men it's going to call into question why we're going to be there. any country where we are, once the security the united states provides, once the prosperity we help to generate and for us to leave puts them in greater jeopardy for the future. we need their help and not simply ask them to sit by idly while that kind of provocation goes unchecked. >> and finally, israel, the u.s. and israel, here's prime minister netanyahu putting a precise timetable on when he thinks iran crosses into the danger joan. >> six months away for having the enriched uranium.

i think you have to place that red line before them now, before it's it too late. they're in the red zone. they're in the last 20 yards. you can't let them cross that goal line and score a touchdown because that would have unbelievable consequences, griefs you consequences for the peace and security of the world really. >> should any american president give the kind of ultimatum to iran dictated by israeli timetables? >> i think it would be a mistake for any president to make a commitment in advance to what we will or won't do. president obama has sent a strong signal to the israeli government and people that we will be there to prevent iran from becoming a nuclear power and weapon, they have to take care, however, as we try to impress upon the united states or force the united states to declare a red line that you not put any president in a position where he has no option, no

flexibility, and then is required to take action. i think we also have to take into account a retired intelligence official, the head said on "60 minutes" it would be a mistake for the united states to launch an attack at this time, that there was time to take further measures both diplomatic, covert and other types of actions. we have to take care and not allow another country to put an american president in an election year in a difficult position where he has no flexibility and then hands over the keys basically to the decision on war or peace to another leader. this is something no president can afford to do. i think that -- i understand prime minister benjamin netanyahu. i know him. he's a friend. but we have to take care when in somebody else's electoral cycle measure the words more carefully. >> thank you so much, bill cohen. up next, politico's jim

vandehei, the romney campaign's blame game. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. in america today we're running out of a vital resource we need to compete on the global stage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them.

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"snl," it was a result of a bigger problem within the romney campaign according to politico's reporting today. politico's jim vandehei joins me now. hey, jim. you have caused quite a storm in both campaigns with your reporting on what seems like sort of a post-election kind of inside story and we are 50 days away and they are neck and neck. what's going on in there? >> yeah. i think you're picking up as well as we are, andrea, a lot of truss sfrags -- frustration inside and outside of the romney campaign to get any lead against barack obama but more importantly to come up with a coherent message on how life would be different under mitt romney than barack obama. a lot of criticism last week on the record from conservatives starting with the editorial pages of the "wall street journal" and weekly standard and spreading to elected officials saying come on, yes, people want to beat barack obama. they're ready to have a

different president but you have to make an affirmative case for what that looks like. so there's a lot of finger-pointing at who is to blame for where the romney camp is at and for stuart stevens a lot of fingers being pointed at him, the top strategist for mitt romney, in charge of the ads herk's in charge of the strategy, he was largely in charge of the convention which now in retrospect a lot of republicans feel like was not a success. >> from your reporting, is this fair? is this sort of the blame game where they're all pointing fingers at stewart stevens but everyone should take responsibility as well principally, the candidate himself? this is the candidate who is arguing that he can fix the problems of the economy because he's a turn around artist? >> i'm a big believer that at the end of the day all these campaigns reflect the principal and in this case mitt romney. he serves as his own campaign manager. he has about seven different power centers inside his operation. he hired stuart stevens.

he had looked around, talked to ken mehlman and other folks before settling on stuart stevens. at the end of the day he picked stevens, stuck with stevens. best i can still very much believes in stuart stevens. this is the mitt romney campaign and i think this cautious approach, this refusal to really engage in this war of ideas that paul ryan and i think the conservatives enam mored with paul ryan want, it reflects mitt romney as much as it would reflect stuart stevens. until they resolve that and the candidates decides i want a war of ideas, fight about the partial privatization of medicare, talk with specificity about what the tax code will look like a year from now under mitt romney, until he makes that decision, it doesn't matter what the aides want to do. it's his campaign. it would be his presidency. >> and one of those top aides ed gillespie this morning seemed to be indicating there will be more speeches this week, more

specificity on economic plans but not the big foreign policy critique that some republican conservatives have been calling for. >> yeah. i would say there's been a lot of mixed signals in the last 12 hours. once our story posted last night around 8:00 it's clear the campaign wanted to get out this message they've decided to change strategies. it's not clear even reading our own stories from our report and reading some of the work on other sites it's not clear what that strategy looks like. are they different, delivered with more specificity. seems like they're talking about the same ideas maybe repackaged or packaged similarly to the way they were the last couple weeks. what i've heard today is, what does that mean? show us what it means. show us the five-point plan. show us something we didn't hear in the convention. i think that's what conservat e conservatives are going to look for. at the end of the day mitt romney's problem is not the media. he's running in a campaign against an incumbent president

who for whatever reason has been able to defy the historical patterns of what happens when you run in a bad economy and other big problem is that conservatives never really loved him. so when there is turbulence in a campaign you see them quick triggered, to go on the record and criticize him. you don't see that on the democratic side and it makes stories of sort of this disunity or disorganization, much easier for the media to write when so many conservatives are saying it themselves on the record. clearly he has time. he has seven weeks to get things right. the debates will be the make or break point, either change the public's perception of him as a potential president or not at those debates. that's where the bulk of the energy is placed right now. >> jim vandehei, thanks so much. >> take care. up next, team obama comes -- coming up next, finding their answer to the better off question. what a bargain!

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topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports" chicago students missed school again today. as citywide teachers strike enters its second week. negotiators did reach a tentative agreement over the weekend but teachers wanted more time to look over a deal that addresses their concerns over evaluations and rehiring policies. mayor rahm emanuel asked the state court to force teachers back to work and let 350,000 students return to their classrooms. occupy wall street marked it first anniversary today with about 1,000 protesters marching in new york's financial district. police arrested dozens of demonstrators and blocked many others from marching on wall street and the new york stock exchange. the crowds are, though, significantly smaller than last fall when protesters first occupied the park demanding an end to economic equality. >> cancer the leading cause of death among hispanics in america. according to a new report by the american cancer society his pan

micks are more likely to get diagnosed later and suffer cancer of the stomach, liver, cervix and gal gladder. >> lawyers for prince william and his wife catherine went to court to seeking an injunction to stop a photographer for publishing topless photos of the duchess on vacation. in a slol low mon islands, the palace continues the furor over the photos. >> took more than a week for them to come up to an answer from the taunt from the romney team but the obama team is unveiling that question, are you better off than four years ago. patrick is the executive director of the democratic national committee and former member of the obama white house staff. it took a couple days but you have this new advertisement today. how are we better off as a country than we were four years ago given the high unemployment?

>> it may have taken a while to put an ad on tv but every single day for the last three and a half years, the president has been working exceedingly hard to make certain that we've pushed all of middle america forward and clearly if you look at the outcomes from increased manufacturing to the iconic automobile industry that was on its last legs while the president came into office which is not-- now working a triple shift and gm leading the world again and look at the 4.5 million jobs grown over the course of the last 30 months or so it's clear collectively we are better off than then when you consider four years ago this past weekend we were facing the lehman brothers collapse, the collapse of aig, the collapse of our entire financial sector, and if you look at where the dow stood then and where it is now, clearly there's been some forward movement. of course the president, would be the first one to say that we've got a ways to go yet.

there's still so much more work to do and we have at least a million jobs that could be created today if mitt romney, paul ryan and the republican leadership would come on board and pass our jobs bill. >> what about this, some would say the republicans would certainly say, the action against china on the treasure today. >> it's not belated. this is the 14th time the president has gone to the world trade organization and advanced principles that would help american workers and has asked for sanctions to be levied and has asked for a level playing field. of those 14 times, andrea, nine of them have been directed at china and you may recall in 2009, the president took aggressive measures against the chinese tire industry, mitt romney accused us of protectionism. it's interesting to see as he recalibrates his campaign yet again he now seems to be taking a hypocritical posture on china as well despite the fact he

accused us of protectionism and he himself propheted from outsourcing jobs to china when outsourced jobs when at bain capital. >> the unraveling and around the world would not have taken place if the president had been tougher. >> that's actually really sad, disheartening. i think it's fine and legitimate to have policy differences, but when you've got a candidate for president, accusing the sitting president of the united states of coddling terrorists it seems to be a sort of race to the bottom, a craven race to the bottom unbecoming of his candidacy and of the office. the president has done everything that he can to make certain that americans abroad are secured, we're working with egypt, with libya, it turkey to make sure we have full cooperation and where necessary, additional force is brought to

bear so anyone knows if they think about attacking americans there will be retribution. >> thank you so much. we should point out we invited the romney camp to send someone to talk and they declined. did you catch "snl." >> i thought it was hilarious. >> we can revisit all of that later too as well. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> good to see you. >> up next the strategy session, the big challenges ahead for both campaigns. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i know is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. i i had pain in my abdomen...g. it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason.

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stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. see if america's most prescribed ed treatment is right for you. in these final critical weeks, will anti-american protests influence voters? bill burton was president obama's deputy white house press secretary and now with priorities usa action super pac and alice stewart presidential secretary to the santorum presidential campaign. thank you very much. first to you, bill, what about the criticism that we're hearing from republicans against the

president's handling of the arab -- so-called arab spring? >> well, it's really kind of pathetic. if you're the romney campaign, you can see why you would attack on foreign policy even though that's not really where this campaign has been or the centerpiece of your argument has been because nothing else seems to be working. the economic argument they've been making is not catching on out in the states and the fact that the president still has a little bit of an advantage in a tight race, i think is something that's probably really worrying romney and his advisors and supporters frankly. >> and alice i wanted to play a little bit of rick san iter to rum, the man you used to work with as well as working with michelle bachmann at the values voters weekend, what he had to say about us. >> we will never have the media on our side. ever in this country. we will never have the elite, smart people on our side. because they believe they should have the power to tell you what

to do. >> what does he mean by the elite smart people? i think i should plead guilty. >> you are very smart, there's no doubt about that andrea. >> i don't know about that. just joking. >> i was at the speech and it was a wonderful speech but the overall message he was giving to conservatives was about the importance of conservatism and conservatives to rally together and without religion and without church and without families, there is no strong conservative movement. he was really reinforcing the need for conservatives and members of faith to come together. i would like to address a point that bill made in terms of foreign policy. what's pathetic is the current administration's foreign policy. what we have the situation going on now in the middle east, is the result of weakness from the obama administration. they seem to be under the mistaken notion that strength is provocative when, in fact, weakness is provocative. he's shown weakness on many fronts during the past three and a half years.

weakness apologizing for america, whispers of flexibility to his russian leaders and inability to stand in and stop iran from developing nuclear weapons. that's weakness on the part of this administration and that makes us vulnerable in the eyes of other people in the world. we need a leader like mitt romney and paul ryan who will get in and demonstrate america's excellence and be a shining city on the hill across the world. >> when you have mitt romney endorsing all of the president's foreign policy to what he's doing in afghanistan to iran where he can't articulate any real difference in what he would do different from a policy standpoint, i think you can see why romney has had so much trouble gaining traction on this issue. there hasn't been a president who's been tougher than president obama when it comes to terrorists abroad. when it comes to executing our wars in iraq and ending that war and in afghanistan and i think the reason romney is losing so much on foreign policy on who's a stronger leader is because he can't articulate a vision for this country that would put us a

in a safer and secure place. >> i'm anxious to see the polls after we get through this week because there's no way any american who has been watching the news and the situation we're in as a result of this emergency is going to have more support for the current president on foreign policy. >> alice are you satisfied because a lot of conservatives are not, with the way mitt romney has handled these foreign challenges this week? >> well, foreign challenges this week? >> i'm certainly satisfied with the fact that he stood up and denounced the administration for sympathizing with those who breached our embassy. we had to wait 15 hours to get an official response from the president on this. >> there was no sympathy from the white house. or the state department for those who -- >> the initial statement was sympathy towards those that breached our embassy, and there is no place in american foreign policy for that. >> that is a statement from a press officer in cairo, and i think they would argue it was not sympathizing with those that breached the embassy.

what about criticism mitt romney was not tough enough and coherent enough in his criticism? in one interview he seemed to agree with president obama on what the red lines are for iran? >> i can assure that governor romney certainly has a stroonger and more definite red line on iran. currently, president obama doesn't have one. he would have stood up to the development of nuclear weapons a long time ago, when, in fact, he has not. what we need is what we heard from paul ryan the other day. we need an american leadership that will stand with moral clarity and firmness of purpose. it will demonstrate the exceptionalism. >> you had need to explain what that would be this last weekend and he didn't aat that. the truth is his policies are not that much different than president obama's when it comes to iran. if they are, he's keeping them secret until someday in the future when he actually lays them out. >> we have to leave it there. we'll come back and we will pick up the debate where we left it right now. thank you very much. thanks, alice. good to see you. thanks, bill. a new wave of panda pandama.

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mitt romney is going to address the hispanic chamber of commerce in l.a. and also sitting down with jose on telemundo which will air tonight. i want to talk about football. the officiating has jumped. both teams yesterday in the redskins/rams game. isn't it time where goodell has to take charge and do something

about these novice refs? >> andrea, i don't like to aattaa atta attack a georgetown graduate in roger good gel. it's the nfl and most watched league in the world. you need to have the a-list guys. my wife coaches field hockey, and the referee is sub par there. it's frustrating at that levels much less when you have millions riding on it. josh morgan for the redskins getting that unsportsm s masman conduct, an early front-runner for washington. >> that's for sure. join us tomorrow. richard lui has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> in the next hour we have a lot foum. team romney relaunches its message with 350 days to go into the election, but is that enough time to make a difference? we have the latest on the violent anti-american protests overseas and the deadly attacks

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